Wilson positive on gloomy fate

The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the cusp of history.

Toronto Maple Leaf head coach Ron Wilson reacts while standing next to assistant coach Keith Acton (rear right) during third period NHL action against the Boston Bruins in Toronto on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Toronto lost the game 7-5, ending their mathematical chances of making the playoffs.

By:Kevin McGranSPORTS REPORTER, Published on Tue Mar 31 2009

The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the cusp of history.

One more loss – or wins tonight by Montreal and Florida – and the Maple Leafs will be officially eliminated from post-season play for the fourth season in a row. That's the longest the franchise will have ever gone without a trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs since their inception as the Toronto Arenas in 1917.

The last time the Leafs came close to being this inept, the world was on the brink of economic disaster.

Not that there's any link between the Great Depression and the Leafs' playoff drought – unless you're a Leaf fan – but the last time the team missed the playoffs for three years in a row was 1927-29.

Back then, the Leafs were in a rut of missing the playoffs for six out of eight years. Bracketing those elongated years of misfiring, however, were Stanley Cup championships (1922, 1932).

Leaf fans today should be so lucky.

But what sets the 2008-09 version apart from the three teams that preceded it is a sense this group overachieved.

The last three were all expected to make the playoffs and failed. This one – ripped of most of its high-end talent prior to the season and further diluted at the trade deadline – was expected to vie for last overall, but hung around the playoff race long enough to make a name for itself.

"The cornerstone of any franchise is the players' work ethic," Wilson said. "If you can lay that down and make that a part of your culture, that goes a long way.

"If you have a solid work ethic and, as a coach you're demanding and you don't accept anything other than their best, it becomes a part of the culture. I think our guys have adjusted well to that."

Wilson will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2003, when he came in partway through the season as coach of the San Jose Sharks.

"I came with my eyes wide open," said Wilson.

"I knew it would be very difficult, if not close to impossible, to make the playoffs. We were looking at paring things back and trying to develop some young people and just going through the whole rebuilding process.

"I wasn't uncomfortable with that at all. We've still got a long ways to go to be as competitive as we want. Our ultimate goal is to be a team that challenges every year for the Stanley Cup and eventually wins it."

Wilson has been warning for some time that the team's position in the standings next season might not be any better than this season. "We're going to have even more young guys. There's going to be a lot of change. I fully anticipate that."

Wilson said he's pleased with the progress some of his young players made, naming Mikhail Grabovski, John Mitchell, Nikolai Kulemin, Luke Schenn and even throwing in Jiri Tlusty, who's had a monster second half with the AHL Marlies.

"He's become at dominant force in the American league," said Wilson. "We needed him to do that in order to make this team and have a permanent place here."

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